


A Different Kind of Prison

by Ink_Gypsy



Series: Sanctuary Singles [27]
Category: The Lord of the Rings RPF (AU)
Genre: M/M, Sanctuary Universe, Sean Astin/Elijah Wood - Freeform, au fics, holiday fics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-10-01 19:30:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17250041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ink_Gypsy/pseuds/Ink_Gypsy
Summary: A careless remark from Dom sparks a difficult conversation between Sean and Elijah on New Year’s Eve.





	A Different Kind of Prison

**Author's Note:**

> Written for New Year's Eve 2018.

[ ](https://imgur.com/wldnFzE)

It was going to be a quiet New Year’s Eve for them. Sean was working on his book and Elijah was video chatting with his friends Billy and Dom. He’d only meant to wish them a happy new year, but Dom was feeling chatty, and after Billy had left the room, he and Elijah kept talking. Hearing Dom’s British accent made Sean feel nostalgic, although the accent was far different from Daniel’s. Dom’s accent was what Daniel would have called working-class, a description he wouldn’t have used to be unkind, but would have been just a holdover from his upper-class upbringing.

Having wireless internet access had made Elijah so happy that Sean was glad he had decided to make the addition to the cabin. The cell phone enabled Elijah to call his friends and Hannah whenever he wanted, but when he wanted to not only hear their voices but see them as well, he now had the ability to video chat. Having this type of connection again had enriched Elijah’s life, which in turn, had enriched Sean’s.

There was giggling mixed in with words as Dom and Elijah caught up. Sitting at his desk, Sean only half-heard their conversation about the restaurant and his and Billy’s adventures, allowing their voices to become background music for him as he worked on an especially difficult chapter. His attention was totally on his writing, until the sound of Elijah’s raised voice broke into his concentration.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“I’m just saying that no matter how good the sex is,” Dom told Elijah, “you’re still stuck out in the middle of nowhere. No movie theatres, no bars, no restaurants, just spending 24/7 in that fucking cabin.” He chuckled. “You left to get away from that crazy Dane, but considering Sean keeps you all to himself, you might as well be living with Pedar still.”

Elijah gasped, then spat out, “Shut the fuck up, Dom! Sean is nothing like Pedar!”

“Calm down, Lij,” Dom tried to explain, “you know I didn’t mean they were the same. You know I don’t think Sean—“

Sean didn’t get to hear the rest because Elijah had already broken the connection. He waited, and when heard nothing from Elijah, he swiveled around in his chair and saw that his young lover was still sitting in front of his laptop. The video chat connection broken, the laptop now showed the desktop, one of the first nature photographs Elijah had taken with Sean’s camera, the camera that had fallen into the lake with Elijah during Hannah’s Thanksgiving visit.

When Elijah finally looked at Sean and spoke, it was to ask him, “You heard?” At Sean’s nod Elijah said, “I’m sorry. He had no right to say those things about you, about us.”

“I know you didn’t like the way he phrased it,” Sean suggested, “but maybe Dom was right.”

“Dom was right?” Elijah repeated, looking incredulous. “How can you say that? He made it sound like you were treating me the way Pedar did.”

“I can see his point,” Sean admitted. “Being with me is keeping you away from the people and the things you love, much as being with Pedar did.”

“It’s not the same thing,” Elijah insisted. “You’d never hurt me the way Pedar did.”

“Of course I wouldn’t, but you’re just as isolated here as you were in Pedar’s brownstone."

“It’s not the same thing,” Elijah said again. “Pedar wouldn’t let me leave. He hurt me when I tried.” He ran his fingers through his hair in a gesture Sean recognized as something he only did when he was upset or frustrated. “You took me in when I had no place to go and you didn’t ask for anything in return. You didn’t force me to stay with you, Sean. You let me stay, and I know that if I’d wanted to leave, you wouldn’t have tried to stop me.”

“When I knew I was falling in love with you, it would have broken my heart if you wanted to leave, but even then, I wouldn’t have stood in your way.” Sean smiled. “But lucky for me, you didn’t want to go.”

“And I still don’t,” Elijah declared, looking around the cabin. “Dom couldn’t take living here because it’s too peaceful,” he explained. “He and Billy are always looking for something exciting to do. Dom wouldn’t last a day away from the city, would be bored out of his skull, so he can’t understand why I’m not.”

“You were bored out of your skull when you first got here,” Sean reminded him.

“No I wasn’t!” Elijah protested, and then grinned sheepishly. “Well, maybe in the beginning, but then I got to like it here.” At Sean’s dubious look he amended, “Okay, it was you I got to like first, but I did like living here after a while. It just took me a little time to get used to having so much nature around. And it being so quiet.”

“You know, Elijah,” Sean offered, “you won’t hurt my feelings if you admit that you miss your old life.”

“I don’t miss it,” Elijah answered quickly. “Well…maybe some of it. Like being able to see Hannah whenever I wanted, or going out with Dom and Billy every couple of weeks, but I wasn’t doing either of those things when I was with Pedar because he didn’t like it, and I was afraid he might hurt them if I tried. Once I left I knew I’d be safe and so would they.” He shook his head. “I didn’t have a plan, other than to leave. I didn’t know where I was going, just that I had to get away or the next time Pedar used his fists on me he might kill me. Finding this place and finding you, it wasn’t something I planned, but it was what I was looking for, even if I didn’t know it.”

“I didn’t know it either,” Sean admitted. “The last thing I was looking for was someone new in my life. I just wanted to help you and send you on your way as soon as possible. Until I didn’t, but even now, the last thing I’d want is to keep you here if it wasn’t what you wanted.”

Elijah ran his fingers through his hair again. “You’re not keeping me here, Sean. And because I know you’d let me go if you knew it was what I wanted, it makes me want to stay.” He frowned. “Does that make sense?”

Sean nodded. “I think so. By giving you the freedom to leave, I’ve given you the freedom to stay.”

Elijah jumped up and went to Sean. “I knew you’d get it,” he said with appreciation. “I don’t get why Dom doesn’t.” He sighed and glanced at his laptop. “I guess I should call him back and apologize.”

“If he’s a good friend, he’ll understand,” Sean assured him, “but while I’m not thrilled about the way he expressed it, I can understand why he feels the way he does.”

“But he’s wrong.”

Sean pulled Elijah down onto his lap. “We know that, but look at it from his point of view,” he began. “Pedar kept you prisoner by using fear and intimidation. When you escaped, you didn’t go to another big city and start a new life. Instead, you ended up in a cabin in the woods, isolated from most of humanity. Is it surprising that Dom would see it as another prison? A different kind of prison, but a prison just the same.”

“But I’m happy here,” Elijah objected. “Doesn’t that count for anything?”

“It counts for everything.” Sean stroked Elijah’s cheek. “It means the world to me that you’re happy, and hopefully one day, Dom will believe it and be happy for you.”

“I wish Dom could meet you and get to know you the way Hannah did. Then he'd understand.”

“What if we could make that happen?” Sean asked.

Elijah’s eyes widened. “Really? We could go visit Billy and Dom?”

“I don’t see why not. We’re beginning a new year, and I think maybe it’s time we saw more of the world than the woods and the inside of this cabin. We talked about going to visit Tilda, and I’d like us to go to Iowa so my folks can finally meet you, but those don’t have to be the only trips we take.”

Elijah bit his bottom lip, another of Elijah’s tells Sean recognized. “You’ve already done so much to make things nicer for me. My laptop, the flat screen, and the satellite dish. You lived a lot simpler before I got here.”

Sean heard what Elijah wasn’t saying. Simpler meant cheaper. “I don’t want you to worry about money, Elijah. I’m not Pedar’s kind of rich, but I’m financially solvent, at least enough for us to do a little traveling.”

“Are you sure?” Elijah questioned. “Even if money’s not a problem, you said you couldn’t face the world after Daniel died. That’s why you came out here to live, to get away from everyone.”

Sean pursed his lips. “And look how that turned out. The world, in the form of a blue-eyed, tousle-headed stranger, came looking for me, and proceeded to break into my self-imposed exile.”

“That’s just it,” Elijah complained. “Things wouldn’t have changed if I hadn’t shown up.”

“But they did change, and that’s a good thing.”

“Yeah, but even then you stayed here at the cabin,” Elijah pointed out, “except you weren’t alone anymore. You got used to me being around, but are you sure you’re ready to face a world full of people?”

“I am, because when I face it, I’ll have you by my side to help me through it.”

Certain that he’d quieted his lover’s fears, Sean was surprised when Elijah stated, “I’m not sure I’m ready to face the world again.”

“You will be,” Sean assured him.

“How do you know?”

Sean hugged Elijah close. “Because when you face it, you’ll have me by _your_ side.”

Elijah’s smile was back as he confirmed, “It’ll be just you and me against the world.”

The remark put Sean in mind of the Helen Reddy song from the early seventies, a song he was sure Elijah had never heard, and one he most likely didn’t even know existed. Sean brushed his lips against Elijah’s in a gentle kiss. “Always and forever,” he promised.

[ ](https://imgur.com/LJjtSe5)


End file.
